We have a property that is highly seasonal and is fully booked for 3 months out of the year but has about a 10℅ occupancy rate otherwise. My inclination for the slow times is to fully refund a guest’s cancellation request despite the terms of our agreement which would result in a 50% penalty. Trying to convince myself that I should abide by the airbnb terms as I do incur some headache in having to process the cancellation requests plus whatever chance (albeit slight) that someone else may have rented during the same time if available.
Why have a contract if you are not going to enforce it? What possible benefit is there to go against your policy? Why not just ease up your policy to flexible during the off season if you have no intention of enforcing your current policy?
Makes no sense from a business perspective. WWTHD? (what would the Hilton do?)
RR
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People keep telling me here that we aren’t hotels. 
Also I agree with your advice about changing to flexible in the off season.
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But we are in business, so many hosts just do not seem to get it IMO.
RR
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I have a similar issue to the original poster - but I didn’t think you could have different cancellation policies for different times of year. If I could, I would have a “strict” policy that only applies during peak periods, and a “flexible” policy for other times. But if I set my policy to “flexible” during the off peak period, then people can also make a booking for the peak period. Is there a way to do this that I am unaware of?
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Blocking your calendar for the peak period until you are ready to take bookings
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Some guests including me are a little skittish about strict cancellation policies. I don’t intend to cancel but there is something about having the option that gives me confidence in booking. I think having a moderate policy in the slow season may encourage some potential guests to book.
I don’t know how how to have two different cancellation policies for the same property but you can alway say in the description “strict cancellation policy enforced xxx through xxx” Moderate cancellation policy applies other months. Then manually administer it if there is a cancellation
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Yes, I’ve tried that. But that means I miss out on potential bookings for the peak period, leaving gaps that I could otherwise fill. 
Not a perfect solution, but maybe the best we can currently do. AirBnB seems not to comprehend places that are extremely seasonal.
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Mine are too! Beach = summer demand
I’ve tried that - we ended up with very few bookings even in the lead-up period to the blocked period. I since read (somewhere on this forum) that blocking your calendar lowers you in the search rankings - and that certainly seems to be our experience 
I have strict on my listing but am thinking of changing it to moderate for this exact reason. Because I myself am nervous about a strict cancellation policy. While I’ve almost never cancelled any reservations I worry about weather in the winter and my elderly father in-law taking a turn for the worse or my cat dying or any number of things that might foreseeably happen. I guess I should buy travel insurance but I don’t. I mainly just don’t want people that “shop around” i.e. reserve my unit but continue to look for something they perceive as better or cheaper cancelling.
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It doesn’t seem like it should be that difficult to allow owners to specify booking parameters based on defined time periods. I think trip advisor has a feature that allows owners to set different rules based on different blocks of dates.
If you could figure out a reason that this would advantage guests then I’m sure AirBnB would be all over it. But if it only benefits hosts, then I wouldn’t hold my breath
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A bit owork but could you duplicate the listing and have one only open in peak periods with strict policy, and the other open off peak with flexible?
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Interesting! I may give it a go next year (we are already past the peak period this year). The only problem I can see would be that blocking the calendar for the periods you don’t want would lower both listing in the search rankings overall.
Another option might be to just have two linked listings with different policies and different prices - a lower the price on the listing that has the “strict” policy, and a higher price on the other one.
I suppose this is what AirBnB has tried to do with their “10% discount if you agree the fee is nonrefundable” lark - but if you are highly seasonal (like we are) then 10% is nowhere near enough. Some people here would double or even triple their prices in peak periods.
Thanks for the suggestion!
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Good work around!
RR
I started to try this on our listing on Homeaway/VRBO. I wanted to have different extra-person charges for the different seasons, and they no longer let you do that. I ultimately decided to just keep the single listing and forget about it. They would not link the listings, and our property would fall in the rankings. It wasn’t worth it to me to lose placement to try and get a few dollars more.